Macedonian Veterinary Review

Original Scientific Article

Effect of water and feeding frequencies on milk production and composition of Azikheli buffalo in Northern Pakistan

Bakhtawara Bibi

Nadar Khan *

Nikola Adamov

Hanfa Shahid

Khalil Ahmad

M.N.M. Ibrahaim

Mac Vet Rev 2025; 48 (1): i - vii

10.2478/macvetrev-2025-0012

Received: 01 November 2024

Received in revised form: 13 December 2024

Accepted: 17 December 2024

Available Online First: 15 January 2025

Published on: 20 December 2024

Correspondence: Nadar Khan, nadar73vet@aup.edu.pk

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Abstract

The study aimed to determine the effect of water and feeding frequency on feed intake, weight gain, milk production, and composition of Azikheli buffalo in climate conditions of Northern Pakistan. Forty multiparous Azikheli buffaloes with similar live body weight, third lactation stage were selected and randomly divided into four groups with ten replicates in each group: GP-1 (water and feed once daily), GP-2 (water and feed twice daily), GP-3 (water-adlib + feed thrice daily), and GP-4 (water-adlib + adlib feed). The basic feed consisted of maize fodder, wild grass, wheat straw. The concentrate feed (2 kg) was supplemented to all groups. Individual access to watering and feed were provided for each animal. The feed samples were analyzed for their chemical composition, and digestibility. The data mean was calculated using repeated-measures ANOVA. Different water frequencies have a statistically significant effect on water intake, dry matter intake, milk production, and milk composition. The average daily water intake in GP1, GP2, GP3, and GP4 was 28.00, 44.00, 56.00 and 67.30 liters, respectively. The average intake of dry matter was 10.20, 11.15, 12.40 and 12.97 kg, respectively. Daily milk yield was 6.90, 7.44, 8.10 and 8.38 liters, respectively. Dry matter intake and milk production were significantly influenced by the frequency of water consumption and nutritional balance. A balanced diet and unrestricted access to water increased milk production by 1.90 liters per animal per day. It was determined that a balanced diet and ad libitum water consumption increased the feed intake and milk production in Azikheli buffaloes and could yield higher profitability of dairy farms.

Keywords: water consumption, feed intake, milk composition, Azikheli buffalo

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Copyright

© 2025 Bibi B. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declared that they have no potential lict of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Citation Information

Macedonian Veterinary Review. Volume 48, Issue 1, Pages i-vii, e-ISSN 1857-7415, p-ISSN 1409-7621, DOI: 10.2478/macvetrev-2025-0012